CSI: Miami Maximum Ride Style
by Chris ShadowMoon
Summary: A One-Shot, just to see if I could do it. When Horatio Caine gets a call to the Everglades, their victim is stranger than normal, with claw-like hands and an evil look to him. And the only clues to the killer is a set of six feathers and two journals.


CSI: Miami: Maximum Ride Style

AN- I'm not gonna be here over the week-end for personal reasons, so I can't write anything…

I've just read book two, and thought this could work, so I'm trying it. I'm also trying a story I can't get out of my head. If you've read the Harry Potter story 'Thunderstruck' by Uchiha Ninja, it's basically gonna be incredibly similar to that, but the crossovers changed. Like W.I.T.C.H. is replace by Jak an Daxter 3… amonst others.

I've been wanting to do a one-shot for a while, just as something to do. Now, I think I actually have an Idea that will work… lets see:

One Shot

The black Hummer tore up the gravel and concrete as it came to a skidding stop at the newest crime scene. The call had come in only two hours ago, and the resident mortician, Alexx Woods, as well as several cop cars, sirens blaring, were already on the scene.

The crime itself was a murder, the victim found out by the ever-glades, by a surprisingly-well-constructed building that was near the water of the glades. A big blue sign with faded and chipped paint read '_Florida Everglade _Tours'. It was obvious that nobody had used the building in several years.

It wasn't too uncommon to find a body somewhere by the glades, even though the glades themselves were hard to reach without an off-road vehicle, like the Hummer. Unsurprisingly, people found it convenient to dump bodies, as they believe alligators will take care of them. Normally, they didn't.

Alexx had already started to examine the body as the Hummer rolled to a stop, and the driver door opened to reveal a man with blond hair and a nice suit with a pair of sunglasses. If someone had checked his I.D, they would have realized it was Horatio Caine that was in front of them, one of the best criminal analysts in Florida.

"Alexx, is this him?" Horatio asked. Alexx, a woman who looked to be in her thirties to forties with black hair, turned from examining the body to look up at him. "Yea, Horatio, this is him."

This body was no different than all the others people hoped the alligators got. It appeared to be about twenty years of age, with short, dirty-blond hair and a steel-like jaw line, as if he had always had a slightly maniacal and evil edge to his face. He looked like he could have been a male model, with that face of his. However, his hands were weird, as they had what resembled claws for fingernails. He also had a tattoo on the back of his neck, that read 2-15-08. His face was frozen in an eternally maniacal grin.

"Do you have a cause of death?" asked Horatio. Alexx nodded. "Yep. See the angle of his neck?" she asked, tracing a finger across the abnormal curve of the neck. "Right, broken neck," said Horatio softly. "M-hm. Snapped cleanly in two. But there isn't even any bruising," said Alexx, looking fairly confused.

"How long ago?" asked Horatio. He hoped he'd have a good idea of where to start his hunt. "Now, that's when I found something weird. I couldn't get an accurate ToD," said Alexx, looking back at the skin where she'd break to insert the Liver Probe.

"Couldn't get a Time of Death? What happened?"

"It's the strangest thing. I couldn't break the skin to get the probe in. It's like a steel plate under the skin."

"Huh. That's weird. What is wrong with his hands?" asked Horatio, dropping down to one knee and taking off his sunglasses to get a better look at the claw-like nails. Alexx lifted his left hand up, taking a closer look. "They look like… claws? How is that possible, Horatio?" said Alexx, looking back at him.

"I don't know, Alexx. I just don't know." Said Horatio, standing up and looking around. The police men had finally set up the yellow 'Police Line' tape. Not looking back, he asked, "Was there anything else around the body?"

Alexx rolled the body over to reveal something under it. "Just these." She reaches down and pulls out… feathers? Six of them, tied together at the end with a bit of wire.

"A calling card?" said Horatio, one eyebrow raised. Alexx shrugged. "Possible. But look closer at the feathers."

He did so, confused by what he saw. Each one was between nine and twelve inches in length, and all were brown and white. "Have you ever heard of a bird with foot long feathers? The wing-span would have to be thirteen feet!" exclaimed Alexx. Horatio looked around again, like there was something he was missing. "True Alexx. A bird that large has to be rare." He focused on something off to the side, by a bush, compressed with a small stone, apparently to stop it from blowing away in the wind. "Hang on a second."

Walking over to it, he realized it was… a book. Two books actually. Well, they couldn't really be called books. They were closer to something a kid might be able to put together. It was typed well, with a cover page with the simple words 'Maximum Ride' in simple golden letters on each. The top one had 'Book One: The Angel Experiment' under that, while 'Book Two: School's Out—Forever' was in the same spot on the second book. They were closer to journals than anything else. He removed the stone and picked it up.

"Maximum Ride?" he said to himself, looking at the simple cover. Suddenly, a small photograph slipped out of one of the pages, and floated to the ground. Horatio picked it up.

It showed six people. There was three girls, one who appeared to be fourteen or fifteen, with brown hair, one who looked to be about ten or eleven, and on who looked no older than eight. Standing near them was three boys, two who looked about fourteen each, one with black glasses and the other with a neutral expression, while the last boy looked no older than ten. The young boy and the young girl looked like they could have been siblings.

He flipped into the first page of 'Book One', only to stop at the site of a note that was hand-written in black ink, an obvious contrast of the neat computer print.

_Do not put this book down. I'm dead serious—your life could depend on it. I'm risking everything telling you—but you need to know._

_-Max_

Under that was another note

_WARNING_

_If you dare to read this story, _

_you become part of the Experiment._

_I know that sounds a little mysterious-_

_But it's all I can say right now._

_Max_

He picked up both books, and started to walk back towards Alexx, when something caught his eye. On top of the old tour-building roof was a girl. The same girl from the photo, long brown hair and all. She stood their looking at him, as if studying him. Suddenly, the other five walked closer to the edge, giving Horatio a view of all six in one spot.

Suddenly, as Alexx caught sight of them, the one in the front nodded to him, before uncrossing her arms and looking back at her companions and saying something Horatio didn't catch. Then, before he could blink, all six of them turned to the edge of the roof on their left, and started running towards it. Before Horatio could scream or say anything, all six had jumped off and, against all rational thinking, spread _wings_, of all things, from between their shoulders. They flew over the tops of the mangrove trees and disappeared from view, leaving a disbelieving Alexx and Horatio staring at where they once were. None of the nearby cops had noticed their silent escape.

"Horatio, did you just see what I just saw?"

"I think I did, Alexx."

"Horatio?"

"Yes?"

"We're not going to solve this case, are we?"

Horatio flipped his glasses on, stuck his hands in his pockets, and turned towards the building one more time. "I don't think so, Alexx. I don't think so."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Horatio sat in his office, holding the first journal in his hands, staring at it. It'd taken about three calls and many, many threats to get the entire case swept under the rug. The only physical proof that the case ever existed was the set of feathers that rested in a special frame on one of Horatio's shelf and the two journals in front of him. Finally, as if he'd made up his mind about what he was doing, he opened the journal and flipped past the notes to the first part of the typed text.

'_Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means that you've taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday. Yes, _you,_ standing there leafing through these pages. _Do not put this book down._ I'm dead serious—your life could depend on it._

_This is my story, the story of my family, but it could just as easily be your story, too. We're all in this together; trust me on that. I've never done anything like this, so I'm just going to jump in, and you try to keep up. _

_Ok, I'm Max. I'm fourteen. I live with my family, who are five kids, not related to me by blood, but still totally my family._

_We're—well, we're kind of amazing. Not to sound too full of myself, but we're like nothing you've ever seen before._

_Basically, we're pretty cool, nice, smart—but not "average" in any way. The six of us—me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel—were made on purpose, by the sickest, most horrible "scientists" you could possibly imagine. The created us as an experiment. An experiment where we ended up on 98 percent human. That other 2 percent had a big impact, let me tell you._

_We grew up in a science lab/prison called the School, in cages, like lab rats. It's pretty amazing that we can think or speak at all. But we can—and so much more._

_There was one other School experiment that made it past infancy. Part human, part wolf—all predator: They're called Erasers. They're tough, smart, and hard to control. They look human, but when they want to, they are capable of morphing into wolf men, complete with fur, fangs, and claws. The School uses them as guards, police—and executioners. _

_To them, we're moving targets—prey smart enough to be a fun challenge. Basically, they want to rip our throats out. And make sure the world never finds out about us. _

_But I'm not lying down just yet. I'm telling _you_, right?_

_This story could be about you—or your children. If not today, then soon. So please, please take this seriously. I'm risking everything that matters by telling you—_but you need to know.

_Keep reading—don't let anyone stop you._

_-Max. And my family: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Welcome to our Nightmare_

END!


End file.
